Barcelona, fifth most attractive city in Europe for investment

• • Only London, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam rank higher than Barcelona
• • Catalonia attracts nearly 45% of all foreign investment projects in Spain

Barcelona has climbed three positions and is now the fifth most attractive European city for investment, according to the prestigious yearly European Attractiveness Survey 2016 report published recently by Ernst&Young (EY). Only London, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam rank higher than Barcelona on this list, while the Catalan capital is trailed by Munich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Brussels and Rome.

Furthermore, the same report by EY consultancy highlights that Catalonia attracts nearly 45% of allforeign investment projects in Spain. This figure confirms those published just a few weeks ago by the Consell de Treball Econòmic i Social de Catalunya (CTESC) and reflects how Catalonia has pulled ahead of Madrid in this area.

According to the report, in 2015 Catalonia attracted 111 foreign investment projects, which makes up exactly 44.8% of all of this type of investment in Spain, up 2.78% from the previous year. Madrid, on the other hand, attracted 46 investment projects, down 19.3% from 2014. Andalusia is third on the list, followed by the Valencian Community and the Basque country.

The United Kingdom is at the top of the European ranking, followed by Germany, France and Spain, which received 7% more projects for a total of 248. Unlike the other three countries at the top of the ranking, which are driven by their capital cities, Barcelona is the driving force for growth in Spain. In this regard, the top foreign investor in the country is the United States, followed by France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and Switzerland.

By sectors, manufacturing attracted the most projects (46%), followed by finance and business services (28%), transport and communications (16%), retail and the hospital industry (5%). Looking to 2016, the EY report concludes that the most attractive areas for investment will be information technology (35%), the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology (24%), energy (21%) and the automobile sector (19%).